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In early January of this year, Intergraph acquired COADE Holdings Inc., provider of CAESAR II, PV Elite and TANK products, as well as its popular CADWorx plant design suite. For Intergraph this was their biggest acquisition in the Plant Process Marine (PPM) sector in the past ten years. The acquisition will extend Intergraph's SmartPlant Enterprise engineering suite by adding COADE's software for pipe stress, pressure vessel and storage tank analysis, capabilities that SmartPlant has not had.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Many Intergraph customers are also COADE customers, according to Patrick Holcomb, executive vice president, Power, Process & Marine, Intergraph. COADE has approximately 11,000 customers.

This acquisition positions Intergraph in head-to-head competition with both Autodesk and Bentley. Last year Autodesk announced its Plant 3D design system and Bentley already has Bentley Plant, a 3D design tool, with Bentley named as the #1 provider of plant design software, according to Daratech. Autodesk Plant 3D and CADWorx are easier to use than some weightier plant design products and allow customers who are already well versed in AutoCAD to be able to transition over to a plant design product without a long learning curve.

CAESAR II is COADE's analysis product. 85% of client requests are for improved integration between their 3D products, namely CAESAR II in 3D. Later, Holcomb said they will look at CAESAR II inside approach where people can use the Smart 3D technology and they can start automating at least some of the basic and more mundane stress analysis decisions.

Analysis is also used a lot in capital projects and by owner operators, and in the maintenance process. Code checking applications are used to check vendor drawings, etc.

The company's CADWorx plant design suite is an AutoCAD-based 3D design tool for smaller projects. Intergraph has not focused on the smaller project market segment in any of their divisions so this is really a first for them. “We see this good opportunity from a product perspective as well as a channel perspective,” said Holcomb. “COADE has an indirect channel which typically tends to be better for smaller purchase, shrinkwrapped software and we think we've got a product software portfolio that will fit that channel better as well.”

Most PPM customers are also using multiple products to accomplish plant design and retrofit, plus since plants are in operation for so many years, many legacy systems are still in use, with legacy data in various stages of translation.

“Based on our experience in this space, the switching barriers are very high in this industry due to technical demands and complexity. After we went through our analysis and risk evaluation process, we came out feeling very confident that COADE will continue to compete well, maybe even better, because instead of being a product from little old COADE, it'll be from big Intergraph,” said Holcomb.

Holcomb said that after most owner operator driven projects are completed and the plant is built, most of the subsequent projects tend to be smaller projects. Having CADWorx “gives us a way to better serve the owner operator across the full enterprise lifecycle of those assets.”

It is market changing to pull a smaller PPM company such as COADE into Intergraph. “Branding a product as coming from Intergraph tends to boost awareness and also boost client confidence in that product,” said Holcomb. “The acquisition opens a new door for us into a couple of new market segments we weren't serving before.”

Granted there will be a lot of work to do to get the products of the two companies well integrated. Intergraph will retain all the employees from COADE and the office. The president of COADE, Tom Van Laan, is now a senior vice president at Intergraph and will be running the COADE product division.

“The day to day operations will not change much other than obviously we'll leverage our marketing channels, we'll begin to get our product teams together based on client priorities,” said Holcomb.

Holcomb added that the COADE brand will go away pretty quickly, but the product brands will remain. Both CAESAR II and CADWorx have strong brands, as do TANK and PV Elite. The COADE company brands will be replaced by Intergraph's in the near future.

In the meantime, in terms of purchasing the COADE product, customers buy from the same source. The only difference will be that Intergraph's name will be on products.

Top News of the Week

Autodesk, Inc. has expanded the availability of the

Project Cooper Technology Preview, a simple and easy-to-use free* 2D drawing application, on a global basis. Project Cooper is a technology preview of simple, 2D drawing software intended for landscape and interior designers, planners and project managers, specialty contractors and homeowners. It requires no training to quickly create accurate drawings, layouts and plans. Since October 2009, thousands of U.S. users have tried Project Cooper to create drawings that help clearly present their ideas.

Bentley Systems, Incorporated announced that it has acquired

Enterprise Informatics, Incorporated and

Exor Corporation. The Enterprise Informatics eB Insight software provides configuration and change management capabilities for mission-critical infrastructure asset operations for the energy, nuclear, rail, and government sectors. Exor information modeling software provides for the management and operations of linear networks for infrastructure, including roads and railways.

Tekla Structures BIM (Building Information Modeling) software is developed according to a long-term plan of improved user experience, process, and functionality. This provides the whole building design and construction project team a unique model-based way of collaboration, including possibilities for increased business, productivity, and sustainability.

UC Berkeley Extension announced its new designation as a U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) Education Provider. USGBC sets the standards for the green building industry in the United States and abroad through its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System certification program. UC Berkeley Extension is the first continuing education program at the University of California, and one of the few public continuing education programs in the country, to offer USGBC-approved course credits. UC Berkeley Extension's

Viewpoint Construction Software is proud to announce a partnership with three of the top construction software resellers in the United States. These new partners add even more momentum to the accelerating demand for Viewpoint's fully-integrated, comprehensive and configurable enterprise construction solution. The new members are:

Bangert Computer Systems, Cornerstone Solutions, and

United Solutions, Inc.

Announcements

WHAT:

Autodesk, Inc. announced that it will broadcast its fourth quarter fiscal 2010 financial results conference call live via its website Tuesday, February 23, 2010, at 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time.